


Why in the hell did this happen

by peachybagel



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Other, Trans Character, Trans Karkat Vantas
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-24
Updated: 2015-08-03
Packaged: 2018-03-25 13:14:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3811870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachybagel/pseuds/peachybagel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Karkat is transgender and gets kicked out of his house, then lives with Dave.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Who is he

**Author's Note:**

> Yo sorry I sorta suck at writing. I hope people enjoy this tho

"So I'm on my way home from school and this really cute guy is walking down the street, right? And so I go to talk to him and he just tells me to go away"  
Dave let out a quick, slightly flustered sigh before continuing.  
"So then I'm all wow what the hell and he just walks away so I leave him alone. But then, the next day I see him at school between classes and I'm like hey it's that guy. So when he closes his locker, I just say hi, and he stares at me, packs his shit, and basically runs away. I don't know what to do man. He's super fucking cute and I can't tell if he hates me, or is scared of me, or what."

Dave's best friend, John, squinted for a moment or two. "He probably hates you." The blonde furrowed his brows, which were visible just above his sunglasses. "Not funny. I'm asking for real advice here, man." John laughed with a snort, exposing his fairly straight, yet buck teeth. "Well first off, do you even know his name?" John asked after about a minute. "Uhhh. Nope. Actually, I don't think I've ever seen him before. It's pretty weird, honestly, since we're halfway through the school year."  
John pondered a few thoughts. "What about during role call or attendance or whatever? Wouldn't they have said his name then?"  
"Oh yeah, I guess that's a thing. When I go back, I guess I can just actually listen for his name."  
"Sounds like a pretty reasonable plan to me!"

Monday.  
The next day, once Dave arrived at school, he noticed the belongings of the boy from the previous day (he had a gray and red backpack with a few pins along with a notebook lying on the desk), and sat his stuff down next to it. He awaited the boy's return. Dave's gaze flicked up from his phone when the door opened.  
"Uh, that's my stuff." The other guy spoke in a higher-pitched voice, although it was clear that he tried to make it sound more masculine. Dave had just set down his backpack and the like down haphazardly on the double-desk, and it took up over half of the table. The blonde locked his phone, put it in his pocket, and pushed his things aside and let the other person have space. Dave received a blank stare from the other occupant of the desk.  
"So. I don't really know how to start this off, but sorry if I scared you th-"  
"Shh!" A taller woman with dark hair hissed. Their homeroom teacher was fairly far into taking attendance, and was presently annoyed by people talking. She continued. "Vriska Serket?" the woman's voice called. That one chick who likes spiders groaned loudly as some kind of acknowledgement or response. "David Strider?"  
"Just Dave."  
"Uh huh." The lady acknowledged it, but like the other times he had said that he's "just dave," she didn't take note of it.  
A few other names were called.  
"Karkat Vantas?"  
The boy grumbled. "I'm here."  
Two more names were called, but Dave couldn't bring himself to care about who those people were, or what the announcements were for that day. He began to whisper to Karkat again.  
"Anyway, what I was saying, is that I'm sorry if I scared you the other day or something."  
Karkat looked at Dave with a confused expression, his red-brown eyes piercing into Dave's through his shades.  
"Scared me? I might be short but I'm not a fucking baby. I was just startled." Karkat hissed in response.  
"By me approaching you slowly and visibly, and being super cool?"  
"Definitely not how I'd describe it. Regardless, whatever stupid reasons you have, or stupid ways of twisting words, I was just startled, okay?" Karkat rolled his eyes.  
"By my good looks?" Dave inquired with a smug-ass grin.  
"Wh-no. Just go away."  
"Fine, jeez." Dave moved his things closer to his end of the table.  
Around lunch time that day, Dave had contemplated where to sit, and by taking the asshole route, he overstepped boundaries by sitting by Karkat, who was preoccupied with doing things like not eating; that didn't help the fact that he was already petit as fuck.  
"Hey." Dave set his lunch tray down on the table and shoved his back pack under his seat. Karkat pretended he was already actually eating. There was a silence between the two for a while.  
"So tell me why again you suddenly insist on trying to talk to me?"  
"Well, you see." Dave stopped there and began to contemplate an actual response. He sure as hell couldn't waltz up and be all 'well i thought you were cute so im following you around.'  
"I guess because I just want to?"  
Karkat paused.  
".. Okay."  
"Okay?"  
"Yeah, okay."  
The fault in our bullshit.


	2. So are you coming to my place or not

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this is also short, I'm really trying to set up a base for the fic in the best way I can so I can deliver the most successful of painful feelings later on.

Thursday.

It had been two days since Dave first sat at lunch with Karkat. He was a pretty cool guy. They didn't have any classes together, but they got to talk during homeroom, lunch, and Dave was able to sneak out during the second to last period if he wanted. (His math teacher? 100% oblivious.) Karkat didn't talk a lot. Among the few days the two had talked, only some basic information had been exchanged. Their names were Dave and Karkat, they were both 15 (though Karkat was a few months older), Dave likes music, and Karkat enjoys spending his time being fuckfar from everyone in the world. That and watching movies.

During Algebra, Dave left to "go to the bathroom," loitered in the hall, got Karkat's attention, then proceeded to get him out to the hall and in the bathroom so they could talk.

"So hey, I was wondering if you wanted to stay over at my place this weekend? I have a few friends coming over."

"Uhh. I don't know if I can."

"Alright well then check. It'd be cool to have you there." Dave flashed double pistols and what Karkat assumed to be a wink, along with those little clicking noises you make when you do the thing.

 

Friday.

Dave rushed to school in an effort to catch Karkat before role call and announcements. He plopped down his stuff in the same spot as before, and waited semi-patiently. It was only a minute or two before Dave spotted the dark brown jumble of hair walking in the door, visible through his sunglasses.

“Hey Karkat”

The brunette just looked at the blond quietly and blankly.

“Why so glum?”

“Just stop right there.” Karkat snapped out of his short trance. “First off, please never say glum again. Just. Oh my god.” He sighed and covered the upper half of his face with his hand. “Second of all, why does it matter if I’m ‘glum’? Who cares, honestly.”

Dave visibly frowned in a disapproving manner. “I don’t know, probably some people.”

“Uh, yeah like who exactly? Wait, hold on.” He opened up his hand and pretended to begin counting. “Yeah, I counted, the amount of people who actually give a fuck is equal to zero.”

Dave took Karkat’s hand, closing all fingers of his except for one and pointed to himself. “You fucking _suck_ at counting, man.”

Karkat just stared at Dave, definitely slightly confused. Upon his realization of the meaning of what Dave said, Karkat switched the single raised finger to another, less desirable one.

“Wow, alright.” Dave paused. “Anyway, moving on, did you decide on whether or not to come to my house?”

“Uhhh.. When is that again?”

"Tomorrow night, people are coming around 7.”

“Oh. Uh…. Okay. Where do you live again?”

“You know the one tall apartment building down the street from the dollar store?” Dave pushed his shades higher up on the bridge of his nose.

“Oh yeah. I’ve seen it.”

“Yeah, I live on the top floor.”

Karkat contemplated the opportunity for a while before nodding to Dave. “I guess I’ll go.” He finally said.


	3. An uncomfortable sleepover

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took a while!  
> ive been working on this slowly since before school ended and i never got around to finishing this chapter, but i have a lot of future stuff planned

Karkat was getting his things together. Not that he had a lot of things in the first place.  
Dave’s apartment was about four or five blocks away, so it wasn’t too long of a walk. Except for the fact that it was a 6-floor building. God damn it.  
By the time he climbed to the top floor, it was about 7:30PM.  
After walking all the way up to the top floor, there was a small hallway, like on the other floors. Except on this door, there were crudely drawn characters with text on a piece of paper that was taped to the door. It read “SWET ASS PARTY!Y!!!” Karkat sighed quietly and rolled his eyes. Definitely Dave’s sense of humor from the little he knew. It was honestly surprising how little Karkat knew about Dave, considering he never shut the fuck up.  
He knocked on the door and almost immediately was greeted with a tall blond man wearing a baseball hat. He sported dark shades, the same way Dave did. Except his were very pointy. They actually looked kind of stupid, though they appeared to be somewhat of a novelty item. (That didn’t allow them to be exempt from looking stupid, however.)  
“You here for Dave’s party?” He asked. His voice was deep and sort of gravely.  
Karkat nodded. “Yeah.”  
“Go straight, turn right past the kitchen, and his is the second door to the left.” The man nodded to somewhere behind him and moved aside to let Karkat in.  
After following the directions, Karkat found himself in a hallway, and looked around. Second on the left. As he approached the door, he heard laughter from two, maybe three people. Karkat opened the door and everyone turned in his direction.  
Dave stood up. “Oh hey dude! I didn’t think you were actually coming.”  
Karkat eyed the room. It definitely didn’t fit any definition of clean. It was a fairly large room, though; there were two other people in Dave’s room, on top of his plethora of personal belongings. Of the two, there was some guy, and then a girl Karkat had seen around school before. The girl had her head tilted, mentally appraising the new guest.  
“Yeah, I mean I didn’t really have anything else to do.” Karkat admitted.  
“Well now you do.” Dave gestured for Karkat to come into his room. “Oh, by the way, this is John, and that’s Rose.” Dave pointed to the two other guests, respectively.  
John waved with a toothy smile and greeted Karkat with a loud “Hey!” In contrast, Rose smiled politely and raised her hand in a slight waving motion.  
Dave pulled Karkat by his wrist and brought him inside his room, closing his door in the process. He then pointed to the brunette, almost excitedly. “This is Karkat.” Dave turned to his other two friends. “He’s from school.”  
Karkat moved his free hand up to his head and ran his fingers through his curly and tangled hair before gently pulling his other hand back.  
There was a slightly out of place silence.  
“Oh, so do you want a drink or food or any of that shit?” Dave asked.  
“Sure.” Karkat shrugged, then took off and set down his backpack. Dave gestured to his desk, which had cups, plates, napkins, various brands of chips, and about three 2-liter bottles with red, white, and green MTN DEW labels. It was actually surprisingly well arranged. Karkat reluctantly got a handful of potato chips on a plate and a plastic cup full of Mountain Dew. Some stories were told and a few jokes were thrown back and forth; Karkat laughed a few times, but for the most part stayed quiet until about 8:45.

“So, any entertaining stories from you, Karkat?” Rose inquired. A light shade of purple lipstick decorated her regular calm smile.  
“No, my life is pretty much straight up bullshit 98% of the time. I mean I could write up some shitty autobiography of my life’s story, but it’s extremely uninteresting by just about every definition.” Karkat hissed back.  
“Well, alright. I’m sure you have your reasons, but if you change your mind, we’re−“ Rose paused, and turned to Dave and John, who were in their own other world of dicking around like idiots. “I, at least, am all ears.”  
Karkat scoffed. “Alright, thanks, I’ll consider telling my whole life’s story and all of my problems to someone I just met, who probably wouldn’t even understand the basics of my problems.”  
Rose shrugged and took a sip of Mountain Dew, leaving a few traces of her purple lips on the rim of the cup. “Whatever suits you.”

Quite a few minutes passed. Karkat and Rose stayed almost silent, while Dave and John had moved on to whispering to each other, and then to loudly and suddenly trying to one-up each other by talking about “hella wicked” things they apparently can do.  
Dave gets a skateboard from his closet and sets two pillows on top of it. He then, with a full cup of grossly caffeinated soda in hand, stands on the pillows with one foot.  
“Dave, you’re such an idiot, oh my god. You’re not gonna be able to do that.” John snorted.  
“No, no, man I can do it for like thirty seconds trust me.”  
He could not.  
In fact, he failed pretty badly, at which point Karkat ended up covered in Mountain Dew.  
“Fuck.” Dave groaned. “Sorry, holy shit.”  
Karkat sighed, only somewhat bothered by the outcome in immediate relativity. “It’s fine, don’t worry.” He shifted slightly. “Uh. Where’s your bathroom?”  
“Oh right.” Dave directed Karkat out the door and just to the left.  
Before leaving, Karkat grabbed another shirt from his bag.

Karkat walked in and closed the door before removing his T-shirt. Underneath was a binder that resembled a tank top. Karkat sighed. It was completely covered in soda. Shit.  
He removed it and put on the shirt he previously retrieved from his bag. “God damn it.”  
Breasts = super visible. Fuck.  
Should he ask for a hoodie or something? It was still generally hot outside, and especially in Dave's crowded room... Plus everyone saw him take a shirt out, so he wouldn’t have a viable excuse to ask for a sweatshirt or hoodie. Plus his binder was wet and covered in soda.  
Karkat, after a surprisingly short panic attack, supposed that they would just find out the truth because for the life of him he couldn’t find a solution to this problem.  
He washed his binder in the sink the best he could and hung it over a towel rack, but took the wet shirt back with him.

He walked back into Dave’s room.  
“Hey, what should I do with the fucked up shirt?”  
Dave was preoccupied with something on his phone when Karkat came back. “”Just put it in the basket over there.” He gestured to a basket of clothes across his room.  
Karkat threw his shirt over and sat down with his legs crossed and his arms draped in front of his chest.  
Fifteen or so minutes passed. Conversations continued. Karkat calmed down.  
He reached for the bag of chips casually and Dave glanced over, paused talking, then continued two seconds later.  
Karkat blinked, stopping for a moment, and placed the bag between his crossed legs and in front of his torso.  
Finally Dave turned to the auburn haired boy, almost as if he was talking to him alone. “So should we actually go and do something? I have a few shitty skateboarding games.”  
Everyone shrugged and scooted over to Dave’s TV.  
“We can play Tony Hawk: American Wasteland. I know how to get stuck in the wall next to this one shop. It's pretty fucking cool actually.”  
Nobody was truly impressed, but they all nodded and smiled. Rose laughed quietly.  
Forty-five minutes passed. Dave couldn’t get the game to glitch, so he just started actually playing through the story as the others started their own conversations.  
“So Karkat, did you just transfer to the school? I haven’t seen you around.” Rose inquired, seemingly out of nowhere.  
"No, I've actually been going here for a while." He answered, slightly uneasy. It was pretty much inevitable that they would find out about him, and he could tell that the beans were nearing the edge of the can. One could say they had a possibility of spilling.  
"Huh. Interesting. " Rose responded after taking a long time sipping her soda.  
"Yeah, I guess." Karkat replied absentmindedly. "Hey, I think I'm going to go to bed."  
Dave paused the game. John turned to Karkat and spoke up after being quiet for so long. "But Karkat, it's only like, 10."  
"Yeah, so? I don't care what time it is, I'm fucking tired." Karkat lied down on the floor in a sort of corner-area and used just his arms as pillows. Nobody really questioned it much beyond that.  
Karkat felt kind of awkward, and felt very much like actual shit.  
He fell asleep quickly.


End file.
